The present invention relates in general to a fluorometer and in particular to a fluorometer of the type including a transmitter of a monochromatic light beam, a receiver of a monochromatic light beam, and a measuring chamber enclosing a space containing fluorescent indicators and including means for introducing an object of measurement into an effective contact with the indicator space.
The measuring principle of the fluorometer of this kind is based on quenching fluorescent radiation due to the effect of physical or chemical parameters of articles under measurement on the fluorescent radiation of the indicator. In this manner, changes in concentration or of parameters of the object of measurement can be determined. It is the quenching constant K defining the measuring sensitivity of the indicators for the concentration or parameter changes of the measured substance which is characteristic for the measuring process of this kind.
Fluorometers having the above-described features are extensively used in those fields where diverse measuring tasks are to be accomplished with the same measuring device. For different measuring requirements, it is sufficient to exchange the measuring chamber or the indicator space in the chamber only while the optical and light measuring devices remain the same.
Nevertheless, there are measuring tasks such as for example consecutive measurements in medical and biological fields in which highly specialized measuring devices are needed having a technological quality which is best suited to these measuring problems.
Especially in measuring transparent media, both solid or liquid or gaseous which exhibit only a minute fluorescent radiation, a transluminescent measuring device is employed with advantage. Fluoroscopy or measurement by transillumination is known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,725,658, and 3,612,866.